Nonprofit Westside Future Fund (WFF) has announced plans to create more affordable housing by developing 50 vacant single-family lots and 36 multi-family apartments in the English Avenue neighborhood.
The developments will be part of a public-private partnership with Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Invest Atlanta, and Atlanta Housing. WFF aims to have residents moved in by early next year.
WFF purchased the lots and apartments as part of its Home on the Westside community retention program, and Atlanta Housing approved project-based Homeflex vouchers to enable development.
WFF has committed nearly $80 million to date to acquire and develop high quality, affordable housing. Current WFF holdings include over 250 multi-family units and more than 100 single-family lots. The organization’s commitment is augmented by an additional $17 million in public funds from Invest Atlanta and Atlanta Housing.
The philanthropic and public dollars ensure affordability for those earning 60% Area Median Income (AMI) and less (2020 AMI for the Atlanta metro area is $82,700 for a family of four). WFF also has an Impact Fund that magnifies the benefit of philanthropic and public dollars. Impact Fund investors do not profit from their investments in affordable housing on the Historic Westside.
Using a set of community retention guidelines established by its board of directors, WFF’s Home on the Westside initiative prioritizes families with ties to the neighborhoods in WFF’s footprint. Through the initiative, a higher priority is given to current and displaced residents from the English Avenue, Vine City, Atlanta University Center (AUC), Ashview Heights, Just Us, and Historic Booker T. Washington neighborhoods.
Graduates of Booker T. Washington High School and AUC institutions, and those who work within the footprint, such as Atlanta Public School teachers and AUC faculty and staff, are also eligible.
Approximately 125 Home on the Westside homeowners are also enrolled in WFF’s Anti-Displacement Tax Fund. Launched in 2017, the program is designed to help ensure that current qualifying homeowners are not displaced due to rising property taxes.
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